Night Owl Cards

By 1993, even dumb ol' me was waking up to the idea that the old collecting model wasn't going to work anymore. I couldn't possibly collect everything that was on store shelves at this rate. The objective every year since I started in 1975 -- find wax packs at stores, buy them -- was a solid purchasing model for years and years. But by the late 1980s, I couldn't keep up with all the sets out there and a lot of times I didn't care, and even in the years when I did try to buy them all, say 1991 and 1992, I was reaching the realization that this was stupid. So, in '93, I went into the collecting season with my eyes wide open. I would collect only what I knew or what appealed to me. And this is how the year went: Find Topps, buy Topps. Find Fleer, buy a little bit but I didn't really like it. Find Donruss, buy a little bit but I didn't really like that either. Find Score -- but it wasn't easy -- and buy it. Find Upper Deck and ... Holy smoke...

Over the first nine or 10 years of writing this blog I wondered what it would be like to collect cards and have money at the same time. Oh, I wasn't destitute. I had a home and a job. Same home and job I have now. But the money just wasn't there. The kid took up a lot of cash and so did the house and the car and the pet. My job paid (and continues to pay) less than a lot of teachers make. I had enough leftover money for small card purchases here and there, three-times-a-year card shows (if the cash was there) and periodic trips to the card aisle. I wasn't left wanting. People sent me cards from everywhere, more-than-generous gifts in the mail, packages that included cards I only dreamed of owning. But still, what would it be like? What would it be like to have extra money to play with in this hobby? I'm still wondering. The kid's college doesn't pay for itself. And that roof repair is overdue. But 2019 has been good to me in making sure a little ext...